President Clinton arriving to take a vacation in Utah, where he finished third behind Ross Perot in 1992. BYU winning a basketball game in the Pit in Albuquerque.
And Chris Morris scoring 20 points in 25 minutes for the Utah Jazz in their 108-97 victory over the Phoenix Suns.Stranger things have happened - just not in the same evening.
Morris' rise from the ashes may be the most incredible event of the three. Just a few days ago - after returning from an aborted trade to Orlando - Morris' agent asked the Jazz to release him, the Deseret News learned.
The Jazz would have done it, too, if Morris had agreed that the Jazz didn't need to pay him for the rest of the year.
Instead, an unhappy Morris moped through a pair of games. He sat on the end of the bench, daydreamed and looked as disinterested as possible. He didn't play a single minute, either.
But there he was, early in the second quarter, being sent in to play against Phoenix on Thursday night, much to the delight of the Delta Center crowd - who, for some reason, still love the guy despite his 33 percent shooting and bad attitude.
This time, however, Morris produced. He said a pep talk by Jazz president Frank Layden helped lift his spirits earlier in the day. He even had a broad smile on his face at the conclusion of the game. Morris said he had more fun playing basketball on Thursday than he'd had since his days as a New Jersey Net.
"Chris Morris played a great game," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. "He was ready to go. At shoot-around this morning he was very active and did a great job."
Of course, that was Sloan's initial post-game response to Morris' play. After fielding several additional questions about the player - and especially after being asked if Morris would now get more playing time - Sloan grew heated. He told the assembled media, in no uncertain terms, that he's tired of the Morris-related questions.
"I'm not going to spend all of my time talking about it. I've got a job to do," said Sloan. "Nobody has asked me about Jacque Vaughn. Where's all the questions about Jacque Vaughn? He's still on the team and nobody has said a word about him. All we've talked about is Chris Morris for three weeks.. . . So what do we try to do, make a zoo out of this?"
While Morris had an impressive outing - 7-of-10 shooting, four 3-pointers - the reality is that the Jazz were well on their way to a victory before he entered the game.
Thanks in large part to the wide shoulders of Karl Malone, the Jazz had one of their best opening quarters of the season. Malone was an animal on the boards, grabbing nine in the first quarter alone. He also scored 13 points.
The Suns, as is their wont, went small with a three-guard lineup early. That left either Jason Kidd or Rex Chapman - both 6-foot-4 - trying to guard Utah's 6-9 Adam Keefe. The Jazz took advantage by having Keefe post-up inside. He scored 10 points in the first and the Jazz opened up a lead of as many as 17 points in the quarter.
"We tried to go small and that hurt us," said Suns coach Danny Ainge. "Keefe was posting up our guards and we didn't really do a good job of rotating our defense."
Said Jazz guard Jeff Hornacek, "We didn't rush any shots and we kept going inside to our big guys to let them go at them down low. It seemed to work."
Morris entered the game early in the second quarter with the Jazz up 37-23. With Ainge still using a smallish lineup, Sloan countered by playing three small forwards on the court at the same time - Morris, Keefe and Bryon Russell.
The Jazz led by 11 at the intermission and were ahead by double figures for most of the second half.
Morris scored five points in the opening half but was even better late in the game. He had 15 second-half points - and was 3-for-4 from 3-point range, including a bank shot from straight away.
"I'm glad for Chris," said fellow almost-Magic team member Greg Foster. "He did a great job. Obviously, he needed that at this point of time with everything going on."
Malone, who hurt his right foot in the third quarter but returned in the fourth, finished with a game-high 28 points and 17 rebounds. Hornacek scored 13 against his former team, while Keefe had 12 and Antoine Carr added 10. Coming off the bench, Howard Eisley dished out 10 assists.
The Jazz withstood the 3-point barrage of the Suns, who were 10-of-20 from long range. The newest Sun, Dennis Scott - recently acquired in a trade with Dallas - did the majority of the damage with six treys. He finished with 18 points. Kidd led the Suns with 23 points, while veteran point guard Kevin Johnson suffered through a miserable 0-for-9 shooting night.
The Jazz, now 38-16 on the year, remained one game ahead of the San Antonio Spurs in the Midwest Division. The Suns fell to 37-18.
Utah will have both Friday and Saturday off for the first (and only) time this season. They'll open a five-game road trip in Houston on Sunday afternoon.